I hear it every day.  People seeking help for a variety of emotional, mental health, or relationship issues often overlook the roles that alcohol is playing in their current difficulties.  They often have some pre-conceived notion that you have to drink every day, drink throughout the day, or consume vast quantities of alcohol, to have a drinking problem.

Many of the people that discover that they are in fact, alcoholic, or that they do in fact, have an alcohol use disorder, describe themselves as a social drinker, a periodic drinker, or maybe even a binge drinker.  Drinking is causing problems in their lives, but defense mechanisms allow them to explain those problems away and not see the impact of the drinking.  To read the rest of this article, follow this link:  You Don't Have To Drink Everyday to be Alcoholic

Befriending Middle Ground in Sustained Recovery from Addiction

By Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D.

Early recovery is spent in trying to interrupt the momentum of the addiction to achieve sustained abstinence. Most of the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual energy is spent on that goal. In sustained recovery, the recovering person is now able to use more of their energy not only cleaning up the debris from their addiction, but being able to consciously move toward being the person that they have wanted to be. Some of the tasks of sustained recovery involve developing balance in one's life, and changing up old, dysfunctional behavior patterns. Many dysfunctional behavior patterns are based on a fabric of cognitive distortions. Much of the cognitive distortions that plague alcoholics and addicts originate in their families of origin.  To read the rest of this article, follow this lilnk:  New:  Befriending Middle Ground in Sustained Recovery